CFD analysis on blood flow inside a symmetric stenosed artery: Physiology of a coronary artery disease

Abstract

This research article interprets the computational fluid dynamics analysis on blood flow inside a symmetric stenosed artery. The current problem models the blood flow inside the left coronary artery as having a symmetric stenosis in the central region. A comprehensive physiological examination of coronary artery disease is numerically evaluated by using the computational fluid dynamics toolbox Open-Field Operation And Manipulation. There are no assumptions of mild stenosis taken into account since the considered stenosis has an exactly measured length, height and position, etc. The blood flow problem is modeled for the non-Newtonian Casson fluid with unsteady, laminar, and incompressible flow assumptions. The underlying problem is solved numerically in its dimensional form. A thorough graphical analysis is provided on the blood flow simulations, pressure profile, velocity line graphs, pressure line graphs, and streamlines for the left coronary artery having a symmetric stenosis formation. The considered artery is divided into three sections, i.e. pre-stenosis, post-stenosis, and stenosis region, and the velocity and pressure line graphs are plotted for these considered regions. The graphical illustrations provide a detailed analysis of how the blood flow is affected inside the left coronary artery due to coronary artery disease. These pre- and post-stenosis velocity line graphs reveal two intriguing results: In the pre-stenosis zone, the velocity increases with increasing axial coordinate length, whereas in the post-stenosis region, the velocity decreases with rising axial coordinate length. It is evident that as the flow moves toward the stenosis region, the flow profile rises; yet, after passing through the stenosis zone, the flow profile begins to fall as the flow moves away from the stenosis region.

Keywords: Blood flow; coronary artery disease; non-Newtonian casson fluid; symmetric stenosis.

Figure 1.

(a) Geometrical model of left coronary artery with a symmetric stenosis at center. (b) Pre-stenosis, stenosis and post-stenosis locations with different $\overline{z}$ locations. (c) Arbitrary control volume (CV).

Figure 2.

(a) 3D-Mesh representation of symmetric stenosis. (b) 2D-Mesh representation of symmetric stenosis (a slice view). (c) Mesh representation of symmetric stenosis (a clip view). 3D: three-dimensional; 2D: two-dimensional.

Figure 3.

(a) $\overline{w}$ flow profile at t  =  1. (b) $\overline{w}$ flow profile at t  =  2. (c) $\overline{w}$ flow profile at t  =  3. (d) $\overline{w}$ flow profile at t  =  4. (e) $\overline{w}$ flow profile at t  =  5. (f) $\overline{w}$ flow profile at t  =  6. (g) $\overline{w}$ flow profile at t  =  7. (h) $\overline{w}$ flow profile at t  =  8. (i) $\overline{w}$ flow profile at t  =  9. (j) $\overline{w}$ flow profile at t  =  10.

Figure 4.

(a) Pressure profile at t  =  1. (b) Pressure profile at t  =  2. (c) Pressure profile at t  =  3. (d) Pressure profile at t  =  4. (e) Pressure profile at t  =  5. (f) Pressure profile at t  =  6. (g) Pressure profile at t  =  7. (h) pressure profile at t  =  8. (i) Pressure profile at t  =  9. (j) Pressure profile at t  =  10.

Figure 5.

(a) Pre-stenosis region velocity profile at t  =  10. (b) Post-stenosis region velocity profile at t  =  10. (c) Stenosis region velocity profile at t  =  10.

Figure 6.

(a) Pre-stenosis pressure profile at t  =  10. (b) Post-stenosis pressure profile at t  =  10. (c) Stenosis region pressure profile at t  =  10.

Figure 7.

(a) Streamlines at t  =  1. (b) Streamlines at t  =  3. (c) Streamlines at t  =  8. (d) Streamlines at t  =  10.